Radio broadcasting is an attractive medium for disseminating information and entertainment oriented programs from a central location to a very large segment of the public. One of the main attractions of radio broadcasting is that the cost of the receiver is very low and affordable to the public. As multimedia devices become more popular, they are rapidly being transformed into multi-functional devices capable of handling a plurality of different services. For example, in recent years, cell phones and multimedia players have incorporated an FM radio to allow multimedia device users to listen to live-broadcast FM radio stations. For example, the integrated FM radio may enable cell phone users to listen to the best mix of music, news, updates, talk shows, traffic and weather updates. A multimedia device such as a cell phone with an integrated FM radio may have a small digital display and a hard and/or soft buttons that may enable users of the cell phone choose their favorite FM radio stations. Users may also have the capability to preset a number of their favorite stations and enable their cell phone's hands-free speaker or use the cell phone's headset to listen to their favorite stations while traveling. Program reminders and alarms may be set so that listeners don't miss their favorite radio shows. In case of emergency, listeners may listen to the latest alerts which may be broadcast over the FM band.
The rapid increase in the availability and use of FM radio broadcasting applications may generate large amounts of audio data, which may be expensive to store and access via a multimedia device such as a cell phone.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.